No fatties allowed

July 21, 2007

In an odd yet revealing letter in today's Financial Times, Google's Global Privacy Counsel (now there's an Orwellian job title), Peter Fleischer, scolds the FT's fashion writer for suggesting that men should wear ties to work. The tie, says Fleischer, "constricts circulation to the brain." Worse yet, it "acts as decorative camouflage for the business suit, designed to shield the middle-age male physique, with its shrinking shoulders and protruding paunch, from feeling sufficiently self-conscious to hit the gym."

There is no place - or shelter - for the physically impure in Fleischer's world. He writes:

Men should lose their "business attire" and wear T-shirts to work. Wouldn't you like to know whether your business partners are fit? Why should you trust a man in business if he abuses his own body? ... If your fashion editor can hardly imagine a better garment for men to exhibit their personality, power and masculinity than wearing ties, well, I work at Google. Our unofficial motto is, "Be serious without a suit."

Praise be. Only the fit in mind, body, and soul should be considered worthy to walk the green fields of Google Earth.